Blade Runners edge Spiders 4–3

And it wasn’t that close.

The latest start of the season — 10 p.m. on Super Bowl Saturday — saw the Spiders fall to the fifth place Blade Runners, and exchange playoff positions.

Facing the Blade Runners, who boast the most scorers in the top-10 ranks of C3 East, as well as the leading goal-scorer, the Spiders would have their work cut out. The previous game against the Blade Runners back in November, the Spiders had to claw their way back to steal a point.

Tonight, the Spiders dug themselves a similar hole in the Richfield ice. An first-shift penalty by the defense — after that defensive pair begged to be demoted to third pairing — led to the Blade Runners capitalizing on a loose puck after Spider sub goalie Dan Schultz made the initial save.

The Spiders answered on the following shift, as Dave Schuster tried three times to score from his office, eventually gave up and found Jon Pappone in Pappone’s Office™.

In the second, the refs got a little whistle-happy, after calling two offsetting penalties, then Andres in the box for a corner battle that resulted in both players falling down, but only one player going to the box. The Blade Runners took 1:55 of their man advantage to score, thus going two for two on their special teams tonight.

And it took just one more shift for the Blade Runners to go up by two. The Spiders closed out the second with some pipes, but nothing to show for it on the scoreboard.

In the third, Schuster again went to work in his office, but again found Pappone’s Office to the better option, who scored from the exact same high slot spot, exact same top right corner.

In the waning minutes, the Spiders had plenty of chances, but could never get the puck above (or through) the legs of the diminutive Blade Runner goalie. And instead, a two-on-one the other way, with the puck carrier adding to his C3 East-leading goal totals and putting the game seemingly out of reach at 4–2.

On the ensuing faceoff, the Spiders pulled Schultz for the extra attacker, and it was Grotbeck this time, down low cleaning up and tapping home Schuster’s shot, assist to Johnson as well. That was Eric’s 100th point as a Spider! (Eric joins Mike Johnson and Dave Schuster in the Spiders Hall of Honor as the only other D2/D1/C3 Spiders to score 100 career points.)

With 41 seconds to go, the Spiders put Schultz back in until the Spiders could get the puck deep. However, that didn’t happen until 10 seconds to go, and by that time, nothing doing offensively and the buzzer sounded on the Spiders’ defeat.

The Blade Runners handily outshot the Spiders in the first two periods, eventually putting up 39 on Schultz (13, 11, 15), adding to his total for the night of 73 shots, 66 saves. The Spiders only won the third period in shots, going 8, 8, 16 for 32 on the Blade Runners’ Carlson.

Standings Watch

2017–18 C3 East Standings (Week 14 – so far)
Team GP W L T OTL P GF GA PIM
Fighting Loons 13 12 0 0 1 25 58 29 52
Les Etoiles du Nord 14 11 3 0 0 22 57 28 34
Maroons 13 9 4 0 0 18 46 32 62
Blade Runners 14 7 6 1 0 15 61 58 104
Spiders 14 6 6 1 1 14 48 44 74
Wolf-Rayets 14 6 7 1 0 13 41 38 58
Leafs 13 5 6 2 0 12 36 39 124
Nighthawks Gold 13 5 8 0 0 10 35 44 112
Hooligans Green 13 3 9 1 0 7 33 56 84
Minnesota Warriors 13 0 13 0 0 0 24 71 68

The loss flips the standings for the Blade Runners, jumping ahead of the Spiders at 7–6–1–0 and 15 points in fourth (and final playoff spot). The Spiders slip back to fifth, 6–6–1–1 and 14 points, one point ahead of the Wolf-Rayets, for the time being.

While the AHA has largely moved away from the standard 10:30 Sunday start times that filled teams’ schedules back in the “old days,” the last time the Spiders had a 10 p.m. or later start was in November 2015, against the Royals, who shut out the Spiders 3-zip.

The Super Bowl bye pushes the Spiders next game to Tuesday, Feb. 13, in the final game of the Richfield homestand. The Spiders take on the Nighthawks Gold, who sit in eighth place (5–8–0–0; 10 pts), and have lost four in a row.

The previous PIM-filled matchup with the Spiders, on Dec. 2, went to the Nighthawks 4–3 after the Spiders came out snoozing in the first.

Puck drop at Richfield on Tuesday, Feb. 13 is at a more reasonable 9:15 p.m.

For details, see the box score and game summary.

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